Russia's President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday said he was "grateful" to Mitt Romney for saying Russia remained the United States' "No. 1 geopolitical foe" because the remark actually helped Putin in missile defense negotiations

Can you even imagine if Putin said that about Obama? There would already be commercials all over the country about it. Actually I'm sure Mitt and his friends can somehow make the quote as is into an Obama attack ad.

sweetmelissa31:Russia's President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday said he was "grateful" to Mitt Romney for saying Russia remained the United States' "No. 1 geopolitical foe" because the remark actually helped Putin in missile defense negotiations

Can you even imagine if Putin said that about Obama? There would already be commercials all over the country about it. Actually I'm sure Mitt and his friends can somehow make the quote as is into an Obama attack ad.

This will no doubt be taken as proof that Willard's original statement was right. Look at those nasty Russians with the missles and stuff, threatening the USA.

sweetmelissa31:Russia's President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday said he was "grateful" to Mitt Romney for saying Russia remained the United States' "No. 1 geopolitical foe" because the remark actually helped Putin in missile defense negotiations

Can you even imagine if Putin said that about Obama? There would already be commercials all over the country about it. Actually I'm sure Mitt and his friends can somehow make the quote as is into an Obama attack ad.

Mittbot will interpret the data to show that he was correct when he commented about the dangers of Russia. To his program parameters, this computes as post hoc ergo procter hoc. He finds no fault with what he did.

sweetmelissa31:Russia's President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday said he was "grateful" to Mitt Romney for saying Russia remained the United States' "No. 1 geopolitical foe" because the remark actually helped Putin in missile defense negotiations

Can you even imagine if Putin said that about Obama? There would already be commercials all over the country about it. Actually I'm sure Mitt and his friends can somehow make the quote as is into an Obama attack ad.

I seem to recall the entire GOP screaming bloody murder because Pelosi was taking an international trip and they were demanding she be muzzled because she MIGHT influence international standing.

Mitt is actually helping Russia against the United States, which I suppose is just normal for him to help every other country besides his own.

Diogenes:vpb: Romney's supporters want it that way anyway, so no big deal.

Bingo.

Not only are they stuck in "red threat" mentality, a new arms race with Russia will do wonders for defense contractors.

This is about the point where McCain lost my support last go around. The Ossetian Crisis had been building for some time. In fairness, the Ossetians were the ones who invited the assistance of the Bolsheviks back in the day, because the Georgians were starting up a push to remove them from their homes, just take their land, and fill ditches with their corpses. The USSR kept that in check, and when the USSR broke up, and Georgia was granted autonomy, the Russians kept a piece of Ossetia, and granted a good number of them dual citizenship--thinking that if there were a bunch of Russian citizens running around, the Georgians might think twice about trying to clean the area out again. Especially with so many Ossetians still working across the border, and with families there as well.

Didn't work out so well, and when the Georgians eventually got to the gumption to renew the old arguments and make moves on the turf again, they were apparently heartened by the resistance, thinking that they could turn it into a beef that they could then roll on. Crazy terrorists and all. Up until they started rolling tanks onto civilians. The UN was still dithering, and McCain was making mutterings about the Evil Empire. Never mind ethnic cleansing. Never mind using the military to clear out civilians. Never mind tanks and government land seizures, and again a UN working on crafting some strongly worded letters, and a US Administration that seemed none too concerned. So, while there was posturing and quibbling and grand statements made, the Russians rolled tanks out against the Georgian tanks to put an end to that sh*t.

And you know what? They were right. They did so to protect folks who had dual citizenship, and to protect their borders, and stop ethnic cleansing before it got a good swing. And what did McCain do? He sided with the folks who rolling tanks onto their civilians.

If things go slideways with Syria and Iran, we will NEED the Russians' support. It's their backyard and sphere of influence. They have the most to lose with instability as well as military action crossing borders so close to their own. They historically have some reason to be leery of Europeans and others massing near their borders. They have a history to back up their nervousness.

Russia is not a perfect society, and they've got their nuts, they've got their own corruption, and they have their own issues, but they are still a fairly new nation state, that inherited a LOT from the Cold War era, and if we are to ever get away from that, we are going to have to make inroads with them. We made friends with Germany and Japan. We invested heavily in those relationships, and both nations are now some of our staunchest allies and trading partners. It's time to move past the myth, and build something new, and Romney's trading on that myth does us, nor them, and service...

"I'm grateful to him (Romney) for formulating his stance so clearly because he has once again proven the correctness of our approach to missile defense problems," Putin told reporters, according to the Russian news agency RIA Novosti.

"The most important thing for us is that even if he doesn't win now, he or a person with similar views may come to power in four years. We must take that into consideration while dealing with security issues for a long perspective,"

The silver lining to Romney screwing any possibility for compromise is now we won't be wasting money deploying the missile defense pork project.

hubiestubert:Mitt's attempts to look Presidential and a policy wonk would be amusing, if he wasn't actually interviewing for the top executive position in our government.

At this point, you have to wonder if he's said, "Screw it, I'm just going to tank this thing, so I can get back to running jobs overseas the old fashioned way..."

I'm really starting to suspect that yes, he is trying to tank the election. That said, he needs to be careful, even as a presidential candidate his words can have international repercussions as with this and the recent Muslim embassy issues.

"Thanks for being a right douchebag, it's making it easier for my negotiations with your military and diplomatic officers."~Putin

Fark you Mittens, Fark you. You have zero understanding of diplomacy, and running for the head of our military, for the seat of chief diplomat.... you are worse than a non-entity. You're actually causing harm to the situation.

hubiestubert:Diogenes: vpb: Romney's supporters want it that way anyway, so no big deal.

Bingo.

Not only are they stuck in "red threat" mentality, a new arms race with Russia will do wonders for defense contractors.

This is about the point where McCain lost my support last go around. The Ossetian Crisis had been building for some time. In fairness, the Ossetians were the ones who invited the assistance of the Bolsheviks back in the day, because the Georgians were starting up a push to remove them from their homes, just take their land, and fill ditches with their corpses. The USSR kept that in check, and when the USSR broke up, and Georgia was granted autonomy, the Russians kept a piece of Ossetia, and granted a good number of them dual citizenship--thinking that if there were a bunch of Russian citizens running around, the Georgians might think twice about trying to clean the area out again. Especially with so many Ossetians still working across the border, and with families there as well.

Didn't work out so well, and when the Georgians eventually got to the gumption to renew the old arguments and make moves on the turf again, they were apparently heartened by the resistance, thinking that they could turn it into a beef that they could then roll on. Crazy terrorists and all. Up until they started rolling tanks onto civilians. The UN was still dithering, and McCain was making mutterings about the Evil Empire. Never mind ethnic cleansing. Never mind using the military to clear out civilians. Never mind tanks and government land seizures, and again a UN working on crafting some strongly worded letters, and a US Administration that seemed none too concerned. So, while there was posturing and quibbling and grand statements made, the Russians rolled tanks out against the Georgian tanks to put an end to that sh*t.

And you know what? They were right. They did so to protect folks who had dual citizenship, and to protect their borders, and stop ethnic cleansing before it got a good ...

"The most important thing for us is that even if he doesn't win now, he or a person with similar views may come to power in four years. We must take that into consideration while dealing with security issues for a long perspective," he said, speaking after a meeting with Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic, according to Interfax news agency.

Holy farking shiat. This would be hilarious if it didn't come with huge national security implications.

lennavan:"The most important thing for us is that even if he doesn't win now, he or a person with similar views may come to power in four years. We must take that into consideration while dealing with security issues for a long perspective," he said, speaking after a meeting with Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic, according to Interfax news agency.

Holy farking shiat. This would be hilarious if it didn't come with huge national security implications.

It's classic Russian pragmatism.

That someone as farking stupid as Romney could possibly be considered a serious candidate is absolutely a geopolitical threat to Russia.

hubiestubert:Didn't work out so well, and when the Georgians eventually got to the gumption to renew the old arguments and make moves on the turf again, they were apparently heartened by the resistance, thinking that they could turn it into a beef that they could then roll on. Crazy terrorists and all. Up until they started rolling tanks onto civilians. The UN was still dithering, and McCain was making mutterings about the Evil Empire. Never mind ethnic cleansing. Never mind using the military to clear out civilians. Never mind tanks and government land seizures, and again a UN working on crafting some strongly worded letters, and a US Administration that seemed none too concerned. So, while there was posturing and quibbling and grand statements made, the Russians rolled tanks out against the Georgian tanks to put an end to that sh*t.

And you know what? They were right. They did so to protect folks who had dual citizenship, and to protect their borders, and stop ethnic cleansing before it got a good swing. And what did McCain do? He sided with the folks who rolling tanks onto their civilians.

I still don't understand one thing, though; why was Georgia so incompetent during this? I mean, they fired directly on Russian forces with multiple tank divisions just sitting there waiting for something to happen. Is their intelligence so bad they didn't know about what, four Russian armored divisions parked in soccer fields? Hell, freaking BBC knew the armored divisions were there. Did the Bush administration, who were buddies with Georgia, not bother to tell them either? Did they just think the Rooskies would back down? Or did they believe Cheney's claims the US government would go to war against Russia to protect them?

Gyrfalcon:hubiestubert: Diogenes: vpb: Romney's supporters want it that way anyway, so no big deal.

Bingo.

Not only are they stuck in "red threat" mentality, a new arms race with Russia will do wonders for defense contractors.

This is about the point where McCain lost my support last go around. The Ossetian Crisis had been building for some time. In fairness, the Ossetians were the ones who invited the assistance of the Bolsheviks back in the day, because the Georgians were starting up a push to remove them from their homes, just take their land, and fill ditches with their corpses. The USSR kept that in check, and when the USSR broke up, and Georgia was granted autonomy, the Russians kept a piece of Ossetia, and granted a good number of them dual citizenship--thinking that if there were a bunch of Russian citizens running around, the Georgians might think twice about trying to clean the area out again. Especially with so many Ossetians still working across the border, and with families there as well.

Didn't work out so well, and when the Georgians eventually got to the gumption to renew the old arguments and make moves on the turf again, they were apparently heartened by the resistance, thinking that they could turn it into a beef that they could then roll on. Crazy terrorists and all. Up until they started rolling tanks onto civilians. The UN was still dithering, and McCain was making mutterings about the Evil Empire. Never mind ethnic cleansing. Never mind using the military to clear out civilians. Never mind tanks and government land seizures, and again a UN working on crafting some strongly worded letters, and a US Administration that seemed none too concerned. So, while there was posturing and quibbling and grand statements made, the Russians rolled tanks out against the Georgian tanks to put an end to that sh*t.

And you know what? They were right. They did so to protect folks who had dual citizenship, and to protect their borders, and stop ethnic cleansing before ...

Seriously, hubie - I'm thinking we should run you.

And McCain is still holding on. Just look at the speech he delivered at the RNC. Both he and Romney and the people who agree with them never, ever look at the intricacies of these relationships. It's foreign policy and diplomacy dictated by stereotypes. No regard for the history of those people, no regard for how the geopolitics fit together, no regard for long term consequences, and all the while eschewing the notion that we can't intervene and/or be at war with every country that does not behave to our liking.

I swear, this dude Romney farks up international relations before he's even in the position to do anything so I guess the next logical step in this vein would be to send the Delta Force/Seal teams to Grenada to shoot at people randomly or to drop a nuke on Beirut?

Today has been like watching a football game where the defending champs are up 56-7, and the fourth quarter hasn't even started yet. It's fun to watch your rival go down in flames, but when it's this bad, you almost feel sorry for its fans.

Fluorescent Testicle:sprawl15: That someone as farking stupid as Romney could possibly be considered a serious candidate is absolutely a geopolitical threat to Russia, the Middle East (specifically Iran, but I doubt he'd stop there) and possibly a few random nations that are currently friendly towards us.

/FTFY.//If Romney ever spoke in front of the United Nations, we'd be in WWIII before the end of his speech.

"I know you brown people don't normally like America, but from what I've seen in National Geographic we give you a lot of jeans and polo shirts and I really think you should be more grateful."